No-Knead Bread in the Italian Baker

Adapted from My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009).

Makes one long loaf

The first thing I did when I got the Italian Baker was write to Emile Henry to find out if I could preheat the empty Italian Baker in the oven before putting room-temperature bread dough in it. The pot is made of Burgundian clay, not part of the Emile Henry Flame Collection, so I wasn’t sure. I still can’t represent to you that it is okay to do that in every circumstance. I can, however, share the response I received from Karla Stears, the corporate chef for Emile Henry, on January 17, 2018, and based on this email, I have been doing just that when making this loaf of bread. So have two of my friends.

You are correct, the Italian Baker is not part of the flame collection but luckily you ARE able to preheat the Baker in the oven and then add your room temperature dough.

The first rise of the bread takes from 12 to 18 hours. I have found that a little more than 18 doesn’t do the dough any harm, especially if the temperature is cold. However, the second rise is 2 hours, and I find that it is better to stick as closely as possible to that timing rather than letting it sit in the banneton much longer than 2 hours.

The amount of time I bake it works well for me in my oven, which is a 36-inch Wolf Dual Fuel. My neighbor found that the bottom of her loaf burned if she baked it as long as I do, so she reduced her baking times to 25 minutes with the lid on and 10 minutes with the lid off. See how yours works out, and adjust if necessary. The internal temperature of the finished loaf should be at least 209°F.

Special Equipment

The Italian Baker by Emile Henry
A rectangular banneton
Mercer Culinary Millennia 10-inch wide bread knife (ATK’s number 1 serrated knife)
Kuhn Rikon 2704 kitchen shears (optional but nice to score the bread)
My Bread by Jim Lahey (optional, but very nice to have)

600g King Arthur bread flour
13 to 14g kosher salt
½ teaspoon yeast (I use SAF instant)
450g cool water
Wheat bran (optional, but nice)

Put the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl, and stir with a fork to combine. Add the cool water, and using the handle of a wooden spoon, mix it all together. I like using the handle of a wooden spoon more than a Danish whisk for this task. This will take a few minutes, but it will come together. Cover the bowl tightly with a piece of plastic wrap. Let sit in a warmish spot for 12 to 18 hours. I like to do it the night before I plan to bake and leave it overnight on the stovetop with the hood lights on.

Put a linen tea towel in the banneton and sprinkle the bottom with a little flour and a little wheat bran, if you have it.

Put a little flour on a wooden board and, using a plastic dough scraper, turn the very sticky dough in the bowl out onto it. Mine is from King Arthur, and I like it. Fold the dough into a rectangle, as if you were folding a piece of paper to put into an envelope. Then turn the dough in the other direction, and fold it the same way again. You can add a very little amount of flour to your hands as you do this because the dough can be sticky, but don’t add too much. You don’t want to add more flour to the dough.

Make sure you have patted it into a rectangle, a little oval-ish, not a square, and place it seam side down in the banneton. Sprinkle a little flour over it and a little wheat bran, if you have it, so the tea towel doesn’t stick. Fold the linen cloth over it, and let it sit for 2 hours. It will expand to fit the banneton.

At the end of the 2-hour second rise, you want to bake it in a preheated 475°F oven in a preheated pot. I count on it taking 45 minutes for my oven to reach that high a temperature, and I always put the Italian Baker into the oven 10 minutes after I turn the heat on. To be clear, 1 hour after the dough has been turned into the banneton, I turn on my oven, and 10 minutes later I put the empty Italian Baker in the oven.

When you are ready to bake the bread, very carefully—because it is so hot—take the Italian Baker out of the oven, closing the door so it doesn’t lose too much heat. Remove the lid, and holding the tea towel tight, turn the banneton upside down over the Italian Baker so the dough plops in. If some sticks to the sides, just nudge it with a silicone spatula, and it will pull right off.

Now it’s time to score the bread. I find it easiest to do this with kitchen shears instead of a lame, and the ones I like best are by Kuhn Rikon. If you look at the picture directly above, you will see how I score it. I snip it right down the middle and then snip side to side.

Put the lid on the Italian Baker, and bake for 30 minutes.

At the end of 30 minutes, remove the lid, and bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove the loaf from the Italian Baker as soon as you take it out of the oven. One or two silicone spatulas will help with this. Cool on a rack before slicing.

If this all sounds like a pain, it really isn’t. Like driving a stick shift, it will become second nature. I bake the bread, then slice it, put it in a plastic bread bag, and slip it into the freezer. King Arthur has plastic bags sized for loaves of bread, and I use those. I toast the slices lightly for sandwiches and darker for toast. Pieces of this bread toasted and cut in half are lovely to serve with cheese.

If I want to make two loaves of bread, I mix a second batch of dough an hour later than the first one and bake it as soon as the first one comes out of the oven. For this reason, I have two bannetons, but I do not have two pots.